Big Gay Picture Show

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema and more

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema & more

Mortdecai (Blu-ray Review)

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While some films get bad reviews, few movies with big name actors get excoriated like Mortdecai did on its cinema release. The film was greeted with some exceptionally scathing notices, but while you can understand some of the points those reviewers were making, the fact is it’s not half as bad as they made out.

Johnny Depp is Lord Charles Mortdecai, a British art dealer with an aristocratic background and penchant for shady shenanigans. He and his wife, Johanna (Gwyneth Paltrow), owe £8 million in back taxes and don’t have much time to raise it, although a possible lifeline arrives following the death of an art dealer and the discovery that a legendary painting by Goya may have been stolen from her. [Read more…]

The Last Five Years (DVD Review)

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Normally movie musicals are set in a heightened reality, not just due to the fact that everyone is singing, but also because the universe itself is shifted to the side. Even something like West Side Story is obviously in a fantasy version of New York, several steps away from reality. However The Last Five Years takes a look at a very real story (indeed it’s based on a tumultuous marriage the musical’s writer, Jason Robert Brown, had when he was in his 20s), and sets it in a realistic New York.

Everyone may be singing and it may play with time in unusual ways, but the world and the characters are extremely grounded, with plenty that everyone will be able to recognise from their own relationships. [Read more…]

The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies (Blu-ray Review)

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The Battle Of The Five Armies certainly doesn’t want to give you time to settle in. Indeed it appears that in Peter Jackson’s mind he wasn’t making three movies, he was creating one enormously long one, as the final part of the trilogy jumps straight in without even the vaguest hint of a recap or a desire to allow the audience to catch their breath.

Nope, the dragon Smaug is on his way to attack Laketown and only Luke Evan’s Bard the Bowman can stop them. That part of the plot is wrapped up pretty quickly, leaving two full hours for the battle of the title and its build-up. Thorin (Richard Armitage) has holed himself up in his ancestral home in the Misty Mountain, but like his forefathers, having control of the vast dwarvish treasure immediately sends him nuts, with the gold causing him to betray his friends and isolate himself from all those around him. [Read more…]

Big Eyes (Blu-ray Review)

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Except for a few moments, Big Eyes is Tim Burton’s least Tim Burton-y movie for a long time. In fact it’s a relatively low key and straightforward affair which relies on the fact it’s got an interesting story to tell and knows that when you have actors like Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz, it’s often best to just get out of their way and allow them to shine.

The film tells the true story of Margaret (Adams), who leaves her husband and heads for San Francisco with her young daughter where she hopes to make money from her art. That proves difficult, until she meets Walter Keane (Waltz), who also selling paintings and charms her with his stories of studying at a prestigious Parisian art school. [Read more…]

Interstellar (Blu-ray Review)

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The world is on the brink of disaster as extreme climate change has left much of the planet a dust bowl, with civilisation pretty much collapsed and many convinced that humanity only has a short time left to live. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is scratching out a living on a farm, but discovers that not far away is a facility that’s hopes to find a future for mankind.

A wormhole has been discovered near Saturn, which leads to another galaxy where there may be habitable worlds. Years before scientists were sent to each of those planets, and now it’s time to send another ship to discover what happened to them and whether one of the worlds could be humanity’s new home. With his ace piloting skills Cooper is selected to go on the mission – much to the anger of his young daughter Murph – alongside scientist Brand (Anne Hathaway) and two other crew members. [Read more…]

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (Blu-ray Review)

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Mockingjay was always going to have a struggle, despite the success of the previous movies. Anyone who’s read the books will know that the third instalment is rather different from the earlier two, not least because there’s no Hunger Games arena and things get pretty dark and glum. Many also wondered whether there was enough material to make two films out of it, or if this gambit to get more cash from the Panem cow was a stretch too far.

It’s pleasing to see then that Mockingjay Part 1 is pretty good. Quite how good it is is difficult to say at the moment, as it’s tough to escape the feeling that this is a long build-up to Part 2, and it’s only going to be with the hindsight of the final instalment that we’ll really be able to properly judge. [Read more…]

The Imitation Game (Blu-ray Review)

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Despite eight Oscar nominations The Imitation Game only walked away with one award, Best Adapted Screenplay. To be honest that wasn’t a shock, as quite a few Oscar watchers had thought it would get nothing. And there are also some, including myself, wondering if the one Academy Award it did win was the right one.

The movie tells the story of Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch), a socially awkward, somewhat irascible mathematics prodigy who, after the Second World War breaks out, applies to the government to help break the infamous Enigma code, something many believe is impossible. However he doesn’t want to continue with the traditional method of codebreaking, where smart men use pens, paper and just their brains, as he has an idea to use a machine to break down and then check the billions of possible combinations until it finds the right one. If he can do it, it will allow the Allies to read the German military’s secret communications and possibly win the war. [Read more…]

Mr. Turner (Blu-ray Review)

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Mr. Turner is one of those films that ought to be interminable. It doesn’t follow a traditional plot, just showing you things happening to the famed painter Joseph William Mallord Turner in the last quarter century of his life. However it possesses a surprising charming, which is even more impressive when you consider the 150 minute running time.

While it may not be plot heavy, that’s not to say it lacks incident, with Turner loved by some, loved by others and living a life that is part high society, part working class and part living by the rules of his own desires. He is profoundly affected by his father’s death, and for a mid 19th Century man possesses an attitude to women that ranges from extremely forward-thinking to the extremely base – working with a female natural scientist but simultaneously taking sexual advantage of his servant – before ending up secretly living with a woman he never marries. [Read more…]

Effie Gray (DVD Review)

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Effie Gray is a genuinely fascinating character and one day there will be a brilliant film made about her, but despite vast amounts of effort and some interesting touches, this movie isn’t it.

At 19-years-old Effie (Dakota Fanning) marries the older John Ruskin (Greg Wise), a prominent art critic who’s seen as a very good match. However soon after the wedding problems begin to appear, as while she wishes to be a proper wife, John controlling parents (Julie Walters and David Suchet) prevent her from helping her husband with his domestic affairs, and he himself refuses to consummate their marriage. [Read more…]

The Way He Looks (DVD Review)

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I’m always wary when a really good short film get turned into a feature-length movie. It seemed a particular concern with The Way He Looks, as the original short that it’s based is so perfect and complete in its own right, that a 90 minute version could easily have either felt bloated or been so different from the original it betrayed its roots. However director Daniel Ribiero has managed the rare feat of taking everything that was great about the short and spun it out into a sweet, tender teen romance that’s a really great film.

Leo is a blind teenager who is in a mainstream school but has issues with some of the other kids. However he has his best friend Gi, with the two of them spending all their time together. Indeed it’s rather co-dependent set-up, with Gi enjoying that Leo needs and seems to rely on her, while Leo has the comfort of someone looking out for him. However he also yearns for independence, feeling that because he’s blind everyone around him is trying to control and prevent him from being his own person. [Read more…]